Children’s Week 2012 starts this Sunday, and with it will come everyone’s favorite holiday PvP achievement – The School of Hard Knocks.

And by favorite, I mean “most polarizing, hated achievement in the history of Warcraft achievements.”

Here’s the thing. No matter how much you’re dreading it because you don’t do PvP, you can do this achievement. Really, you can!

If you’re new to battlegrounds and dreading this achievement, check out my Guide to the School of Hard Knocks from 2010 – it’s still accurate, even with some changes to the Warsong Gulch graveyard, and it’s easier to mount in Alterac Valley (you can do it right out of the gates.) It has maps and video walkthroughs for each step of the achievement (hah, early Cyn videos!). The keys are practice and perseverance – you can do this! Get in some practice runs today and tomorrow to get used to the maps, then don’t give up in front of your orphan!

If you’re a battleground veteran, may I point you to two other articles – A Modest Proposal and A Vicious Proposal – that address the problem of this achievement in our playground. Be a good host. This week is the opportunity to infect a lot of people with the Battleground PvP bug – let’s not squander it.

One suggestion for experienced PvPers that isn’t in the above posts is to get an orphan and run with them, even if you have the achievement already. If there are folks in your BG who like picking on non-PvPers, you might as well be a wolf in sheep’s clothing. :D